The caregiving burden scale among Chinese caregivers of Alzheimer patients

From April 1996 to January 1997, a total of 76 Alzheimer's disease (AD) pat ients and their caregivers were recruited for participation in a comprehens ive assessment at the Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, a 2,198-bed tertiar y-care teaching hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. The AD patients responded to th e Chinese version of the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument. Primary caregivers rated the patients using the Symptom Check List-90 (SLC-90) and the Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist and then rated themselve s with the caregiving burden scale (CBS), coping strategies scale and the s hort version of the Geriatric Depression Score (GDSS). The internal consist ency of the CBS, as assessed by Cronbach's alpha, was 0.849. The correlatio ns between the CBS, SCL-90 and GDS-S ranged from 0.435 to 0.698, The CBS sc ores increased with disease progression and were higher among spouse caregi vers than adult children caregivers. Multiple-regression analysis revealed that caregivers with higher CBS scores were more likely to have lower educa tion levels and to use the meaning subscales of coping strategies, and that these caregivers' patients had greater disruptive behavior and were older (R-2 = 0.727, p = 0.001). The current study establishes the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the CBS for assessment of Chinese careg ivers of AD patients.